Trivia / Heavy Rain

• Actor Allusion: Sam Douglas plays a brown coat-wearing detective here, as he did in the 2005 thriller Derailed.
• Fake American: Practically all the main cast, with the exception of Scott, are played by French or British actors. Inverted with Paco and Hassan, who are voiced by Americans, and zig-zagged with Madison, whose voice acting is done by an American actress but had her visual appearance and motion capture done by a British model.
• The Other Darrin: Madison is voiced by a completely different voice actor in The Taxidermist.
• Quietly Cancelled: The Heavy Rain Chronicles, a series of playable episodes that take place before the events of the main game, were put on hold in 2010 after only one entry, The Taxidermist. Quantic Dream never formally announced the DLC's cancellation, but has since moved onto other projects.
• Throw It In!: The game developers kept Jayden's scar, which his actor Leon Ockenden sustained in real life from his abusive ex-girlfriend (as explained here at 1:50), in for the character.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Most of the subplot involving Ethan Mars' blackouts was cut, including interactive sequences where Ethan was haunted by apparitions of the Origami Killer's victims while in a house submerged in water. At the end of the game, it would have been revealed that Ethan grew some kind of psychic link with the killer when the former was knocked into a coma at the beginning of the game. While the blackouts were kept, the playable scenes were removed due to David Cage feeling that they were too supernatural for the tone of the story; word has it that the reason no other explanation was offered for the blackouts was because the scenes were cut only months before development was set to finish.
  • Madison was originally meant to have been a war correspondent during The War on Terror, and her insomnia was the result of PTSD stemming from a terrorist bombing attack in which she nearly died. Quantic Dream never officially retconned this aspect of her backstory, but all references to it (including the intruders in her introductory chapter speaking Arabic, explaining that they are tied to her past) were removed upon release. Other scenes at her workplace and home were also planned, but dropped for "lack of story progression". Early concept art also suggests her encounter with Dr. Baker originally had her being sexually abused by the doctor after being drugged, which was likely cut for being excessively dark.
  • Madison was originally able to go to her workplace to write articles and research on the case, as well as redecorate her apartment.
  • Jason and Shaun's roles were originally reversed, with the former as the kidnapping victim and the latter being the one to die in the prologue. After they were switched around, Jason was then intended to be a younger child and his death was more graphic, with his body being flung towards Grace after the impact. This was altered due to complaints from Sony.
  • Unlockable concept art suggests that the "Fugitive" chapter would have involved a highway chase between Ethan and the police. This may have later been repurposed for Detroit: Become Human, which has a similar chase between two of the protagonists. The subway chase segment in the final game was also intended to be longer, with Madison and Ethan going from car to car while being pursued by the police.
  • Scott was originally meant to suffocate Ann Sheppard with a pillow at the hospital. This was cut for how excessively dark and unnecessary it was, given that she has Alzheimers and wouldn't recognize that he was her son.
  • Downloadable episodes beyond The Taxidermist were planned out, including one showing how Norman Jayden received the scar on his cheek and became addicted to Triptocaine. Unfortunately, the plans were abandoned when Sony asked Quantic Dream to add Playstation Move support for the game.
  • The game was originally planned to be on the Xbox 360 with a possible release for PC as well, but Microsoft refused the game, fearing that it would cause a scandal due to its themes. Quantic Dream took a three-game exclusivity deal with Sony, which concluded with Detroit: Become Human; the game would receive a PC release in 2019.
• Word of Gay:
  • Leon Ockenden stated in a tweet (which was removed after the deletion of his Twitter account) that Norman's sexuality could be whatever fans decide it is, since it wasn't explored in the story. Development notes◊ for a cancelled DLC episode focusing on Norman also reveal that he had a male love interest named Jack Reilly, who died before the main game.
  • In a 2012 interview with PlayStation Radio UK, Pascal Langdale remarked that he was "faintly disappointed" that Ethan was only shipped with Madison (his potential Love Interest) at the time. He then suggested the idea of shipping Ethan and Norman, implying he doesn't think Ethan is straight.

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